Data Centre Contract Job Trends in the Thames Valley

Data Center
South East > Thames Valley

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Data Centre in contract job vacancies in the Thames Valley. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Data Centre over the 6 months leading up to 19 December 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 83 83 64
Rank change year-on-year 0 -19 +19
Contract jobs citing Data Centre 54 41 84
As % of all contract jobs in the Thames Valley 2.58% 2.05% 3.40%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 7.29% 6.28% 10.58%
Number of daily rates quoted 33 26 69
10th Percentile £293 £163 £292
25th Percentile £325 £350 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £458 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.10% -8.50% -
75th Percentile £500 £581 £650
90th Percentile £600 £603 £679
South East median daily rate £465 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -7.00% -2.44% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 1
10th Percentile - £18.81 -
25th Percentile - £18.91 £24.34
Median hourly rate - £19.38 £25.12
Median % change year-on-year - -22.85% -
75th Percentile - £20.16 £25.89
90th Percentile - £20.44 -
South East median hourly rate - £24.18 £69.77
% change year-on-year - -65.34% -

All Generic Skills
Thames Valley

Data Centre falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills in the Thames Valley.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 741 653 794
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley 35.42% 32.67% 32.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 487 360 503
10th Percentile £261 £265 £205
25th Percentile £400 £409 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £533 £500
Median % change year-on-year -7.61% +6.50% -
75th Percentile £600 £638 £619
90th Percentile £663 £694 £700
South East median daily rate £496 £525 £500
% change year-on-year -5.62% +5.00% -3.85%
Number of hourly rates quoted 35 17 37
10th Percentile £17.81 £19.13 £21.25
25th Percentile £20.79 £27.75 £24.34
Median hourly rate £58.00 £42.88 £45.21
Median % change year-on-year +35.26% -5.15% +126.05%
75th Percentile £80.00 £58.75 £63.29
90th Percentile £96.50 £62.24 £69.45
South East median hourly rate £25.00 £35.00 £53.00
% change year-on-year -28.57% -33.96% +60.61%

Data Centre
Job Vacancy Trend in the Thames Valley

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Data Centre relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Thames Valley.

Data Centre job vacancy trend in the Thames Valley

Data Centre
Daily Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Data Centre.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Daily Rate Histogram in the Thames Valley

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Data Centre in the Thames Valley over the 6 months to 19 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Data Centre in the Thames Valley

Data Centre
Hourly Rate Trend in the Thames Valley

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Data Centre.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Thames Valley citing Data Centre

Data Centre
Contract Job Locations in the Thames Valley

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Data Centre within the Thames Valley region over the 6 months to 19 December 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Berkshire -3 46 £406 -0.79% 38
Buckinghamshire +6 6 £750 +38.89% 12
Oxfordshire -12 2 £600 +20.00% 4
Data Centre
South East

Data Centre
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Thames Valley by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 6 (11.11%) OpenStack
2 3 (5.56%) GeoServer
2 3 (5.56%) Smallworld
Applications
1 6 (11.11%) Microsoft Office
2 4 (7.41%) Microsoft Project
3 2 (3.70%) Microsoft Excel
3 2 (3.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 2 (3.70%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 6 (11.11%) AWS
1 6 (11.11%) Azure
1 6 (11.11%) OpenShift
2 3 (5.56%) Azure ExpressRoute
2 3 (5.56%) Entra ID
3 2 (3.70%) Azure Sentinel
3 2 (3.70%) Microsoft 365
4 1 (1.85%) IaaS
Communications & Networking
1 9 (16.67%) SNMP
1 9 (16.67%) WAN
2 8 (14.81%) BGP
2 8 (14.81%) Firewall
2 8 (14.81%) MPLS
2 8 (14.81%) TACACS
2 8 (14.81%) Wireless
3 7 (12.96%) LAN
4 6 (11.11%) OSPF
4 6 (11.11%) VPN
5 3 (5.56%) SAN
6 2 (3.70%) Cisco Nexus
6 2 (3.70%) DWDM
6 2 (3.70%) SDH
6 2 (3.70%) TCP/IP
7 1 (1.85%) Cisco ISE
7 1 (1.85%) DMVPN
7 1 (1.85%) Fibre Channel
7 1 (1.85%) Network Security
7 1 (1.85%) Software-Defined Networking
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (5.56%) Geospatial Data
1 3 (5.56%) GIS
1 3 (5.56%) QGIS
Development Applications
1 2 (3.70%) Rational DOORS
General
1 10 (18.52%) Social Skills
1 10 (18.52%) Telecoms
2 7 (12.96%) Documentation Skills
3 6 (11.11%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (11.11%) Finance
3 6 (11.11%) Public Sector
4 3 (5.56%) Retail
5 2 (3.70%) Banking
5 2 (3.70%) Front Office
5 2 (3.70%) Legal
6 1 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
Job Titles
1 9 (16.67%) Data Centre Manager
2 7 (12.96%) Analyst
2 7 (12.96%) Data Analyst
2 7 (12.96%) Data Centre Analyst
3 6 (11.11%) Designer
3 6 (11.11%) IP Designer
3 6 (11.11%) Test Engineer
4 5 (9.26%) Architect
4 5 (9.26%) Data Centre Project Manager
4 5 (9.26%) Network Engineer
4 5 (9.26%) Project Manager
5 3 (5.56%) Data Centre Technician
5 3 (5.56%) Data Technician
5 3 (5.56%) Lead
5 3 (5.56%) Solutions Architect
6 2 (3.70%) Engineering Manager
6 2 (3.70%) Firewall Engineer
6 2 (3.70%) Infrastructure Engineer
6 2 (3.70%) PRINCE2 Project Manager
6 2 (3.70%) Telecoms Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (11.11%) RFC 2544
2 2 (3.70%) NETCONF
2 2 (3.70%) OpenConfig
2 2 (3.70%) RESTCONF
2 2 (3.70%) YANG
3 1 (1.85%) 802.1X
Miscellaneous
1 12 (22.22%) Hybrid Cloud
2 6 (11.11%) Fibre Optics
3 4 (7.41%) Virtual Team
4 3 (5.56%) Distributed Systems
4 3 (5.56%) Legacy Systems
4 3 (5.56%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (3.70%) Analytical Mindset
5 2 (3.70%) Management Information System
6 1 (1.85%) FlexPod
6 1 (1.85%) Onboarding
6 1 (1.85%) PKI
6 1 (1.85%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 3 (5.56%) Unix
1 3 (5.56%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 13 (24.07%) Incident Management
2 10 (18.52%) ITIL
3 9 (16.67%) Change Control
3 9 (16.67%) Service Management
4 8 (14.81%) Continuous Improvement
5 7 (12.96%) Business Case
5 7 (12.96%) Infrastructure Transformation
5 7 (12.96%) Migration
5 7 (12.96%) Validation
6 6 (11.11%) Capacity Management
6 6 (11.11%) Case Management
6 6 (11.11%) Change Management
6 6 (11.11%) Incident Response
6 6 (11.11%) Network Virtualisation
6 6 (11.11%) Test Scripting
7 5 (9.26%) Defect Management
7 5 (9.26%) Disaster Recovery
7 5 (9.26%) PRINCE2
7 5 (9.26%) Problem-Solving
7 5 (9.26%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 9 (16.67%) Python
2 5 (9.26%) PowerShell
Qualifications
1 14 (25.93%) Security Cleared
2 11 (20.37%) SC Cleared
3 9 (16.67%) Cisco Certification
4 8 (14.81%) CCIE
4 8 (14.81%) JNCIE
5 7 (12.96%) Degree
6 6 (11.11%) AWS Certification
7 3 (5.56%) Computer Science Degree
7 3 (5.56%) Server+ Certification
8 2 (3.70%) Master's Degree
8 2 (3.70%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
9 1 (1.85%) Azure Certification
9 1 (1.85%) BC Cleared
9 1 (1.85%) BPSS Clearance
9 1 (1.85%) CCNA
9 1 (1.85%) CCNP
9 1 (1.85%) JNCIA
9 1 (1.85%) Microsoft Certification
9 1 (1.85%) VCAP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (7.41%) PMO
2 3 (5.56%) Data Quality
3 2 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (3.70%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
3 2 (3.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (3.70%) QA
4 1 (1.85%) SLA
System Software
1 11 (20.37%) VMware NSX
2 10 (18.52%) VMware Infrastructure
3 3 (5.56%) Active Directory
4 2 (3.70%) vSphere
5 1 (1.85%) Hyper-V
5 1 (1.85%) NFS
Systems Management
1 8 (14.81%) Ansible
2 6 (11.11%) Terraform
3 3 (5.56%) Single Sign-On
4 2 (3.70%) Microsoft Intune
4 2 (3.70%) SCCM
5 1 (1.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
5 1 (1.85%) Cisco CUCM
5 1 (1.85%) vRealize
5 1 (1.85%) vRealize Orchestrator
Vendors
1 21 (38.89%) Cisco
2 13 (24.07%) VMware
3 12 (22.22%) Juniper
4 11 (20.37%) F5
5 8 (14.81%) Fortinet
6 7 (12.96%) Microsoft
7 5 (9.26%) Palo Alto
8 3 (5.56%) ESRI
8 3 (5.56%) Intergraph
8 3 (5.56%) Zscaler
9 2 (3.70%) IBM
9 2 (3.70%) Nokia
9 2 (3.70%) Sophos
9 2 (3.70%) Tanium
10 1 (1.85%) Blue Coat
10 1 (1.85%) CheckPoint
10 1 (1.85%) Commvault
10 1 (1.85%) NetApp
10 1 (1.85%) WatchGuard